Portrait of Saint Louis and Saint Jerome. Two... Lot 34

Portrait of Saint Louis and Saint Jerome. Two illuminated initials from a book of Hours, painted on polychrome parchment and gold. France, first half of the 15th century. Dim: 5x4,6 cm and 5,3x4,6 cm. These two lettrines, now cut out of the body of the text they preceded, are painted in blue on a burnished gold background and decorated with filigree. Both are of good quality and show the image of a character. The first initial "B" features the figure of St. Louis as King of France, crowned and nimbed, wearing a fleur-de-lys robe. He also holds a sceptre and the hand of justice in his hands. The treatment of the royal figure and the perspective of the palatial decoration suggest the hand of a French artist from the first half of the 15th century. The second "A" houses the figure of Saint Jerome, the saint wears the habit and the cardinal's cap, at his feet, the lion that he saved by removing a thorn from its paw offers an image of his fidelity to the saint. The correspondence of the colours and the treatment of the two illuminations, both in the fineness of the strokes and the repetition of the green damask ground, suggest that they could be two lettering from the same manuscript, possibly by two different artists working together.